A SUMMER ON THE YENESEl 75 



exercise, was quite contented, and sang blissfully as he 

 rowed. 



Och Marino, whither we were bound, is, I should 

 think, one of the forlornist outposts of the world. 

 Even now, when I look at my old school map of Asia, 

 I can recognise the place and lay my compass point 

 upon it exactly. The estuary of the Yenesei, which 

 widens out so enormously at Breokoffsky, suddenly 

 narrows about two hundred versts lower down. A long, 

 low spit of land juts out from the western bank into the 

 river to approach the corresponding promontory of the 

 Sopochnaya on the eastern side. On a clear day both 

 points can be seen from Golchika, stretching across the 

 mouth of the Yenesei like the claws of a giant crab. 

 It took us about four hours to reach the long, low 

 peninsula. I remember that Michael Petrovitch 

 grumbled that with his dog sledge he would have been 

 there and back again in the time. Nevertheless he 

 was in high good humour, and laughed and joked all 

 the way. He had dressed himself up for the expedition, 

 and looked very fine in a bushy fur cap with ear flaps, 

 which gave him a quaintly alert appearance, a black 

 velvet coat and breeches, and gold watch-chain. 



When we were still four or five versts from Och 

 Marino we could see a little wooden hut at the end 

 of the promontory. Here lived a Siberiak, Hachenkoff 

 by name, who rented the fishing rights of the place 

 from Antonofi", whose property they were ; and beside 

 it were pitched two native chooms. By one of the 

 curious mirage effects so common on the Yenesei, the 

 three dwellings seemed to stand in air several feet above 



